


now we're in the ring (and we're coming for blood)

by chai_lattes



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Drift Compatibility, F/F, Friendship, Gen, M/M, also um fair warning, but there will be minor character death, hell YES this is a power of friendship story, i wouldn't say MAJOR character death, platonic drift compatible badasses, plus finnpoe and reyrose what else could you need
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-05 13:28:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13388799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chai_lattes/pseuds/chai_lattes
Summary: Finn wanted nothing to do with kaiju, until one attacked his hometown and he was saved by a handsome rookie jaeger pilot. One who left him with a jacket and an unspoken dare. Somehow, he ends up in the jaeger program, training to be the very hero he spent his whole life denying he could be.Rey was used to people telling her that she was nothing, but in the jaeger program she could forget all of that in simulations and in training. All she needed next was a partner who treated her like a person and not just the next step.Together maybe, just maybe, they can stop the apocalypse and help each other get dates along the way.





	1. prologue.

**Author's Note:**

> IT'S A STAR WARS PACIFIC RIM AU!!!! it's gonna be preeeetttty gen, a lot of platonic finn and rey because they're perfect and i love them, but there will be plenty of finnpoe and reyrose, but they'll be a bit of a slower burn. also....c3po and r2d2 are the scientists. i'm very excited about this fic guys!!!

prologue.

It felt like they came from nowhere.

Finn didn’t know what was a worse concept: that monsters entered their world through the bottom of the ocean and god knows what else could come through, or that they had been there the whole time, biding their time and waiting for the right time to breach the surface. 

Finn had been 6 when the first kaiju emerged from the breach. He’d watched, glued to the TV, as the monster hit Cabo, tearing through buildings, cars, bridges, people’s lives. As a child, it barely sunk in that this was something real, that it wasn’t just a monster movie his mom left playing on the television. It had taken four days before armed forces had finally taken it down, and by then, the path of destruction spanned miles.

The second time it had happened was the first time that Finn was  _ really _ scared. The second time meant that this was real, that these monsters were really coming from the ocean and really set on destroying them. The second time meant that there were more than one of them, and it wasn’t going to stop.

And stop it didn’t. Finn begged his parents to move them away from the coast, further inland. Maybe somewhere nice and boring like Ohio. At ten years old, he thought maybe he could convince his parents to move somewhere  _ just  _ like their tiny Oregon town on the east coast, like Maine, but after some thought found he wasn’t totally convinced that kaiju wouldn’t suddenly erupt from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, either.

It was around the fourth attack when the monsters got their name:  _ kaiju _ . And it was around then when the whole world realized what Finn did. That this wasn’t going to stop, and that they needed something else to fight this war with.

And thus the Jaeger Program was born. Building monsters to fight monsters, throwing away old grudges to form new alliances, the whole human race banding together against the real enemy. These metal titans started out clunky and slow, and the piloting was complicated. The neural strain was too much for any single pilot to control, and dozens died in their cockpits before they’d worked out the solution: two pilots, one jaeger, connected by a neural bridge. 

We started  _ winning _ , and jaeger pilots became  _ rock stars _ . None bigger than the defenders of the American west coast, the Skywalker twins in their jaeger, the Millenium Falcon. The two of them coined the term  _ drift compatible _ , fighting as a unified front. While the Falcon was in commision, not a single kaiju made land in the US for nearly 10 years. By the time the Skywalker twins retired, everyone wanted to be a jaeger pilot.

Finn Trooper was perfectly happy staying on the ground, though.

His parents never moved away from their seaside town, but Finn no longer constantly worried about it. Especially not now, when he spent almost all of his time in Chicago, where he was just finishing up pre med. He wasn’t  _ afraid _ of staying by the coast, really. He really was just busy with school is what he told his parents when they brought up coming to visit. But his winter break senior year, he had run out excuses and packed his bags to return to Oregon to visit his parents. His hometown was practically unchanged from his childhood, same pastel buildings crowded together and narrow streets. 

Or at least, it was unchanged up until the very moment that the kaiju made land. 

Finn had never seen one in person before, and his first thought wasn’t to run and scream, or even “wow, it’s bigger than I thought it would be.”

It was “this looks like a terrible CGI monster.”

Terrible CGI or not, the shark-headed monster made land faster than anyone could evacuate. Finn was frozen in his tracks, frozen behind the wheel of his car as he watched the kaiju tear through buildings like they was made of paper. He needed to get home, to find his parents, to get them out of here before it was too late, but he found that he couldn’t move. His hands were frozen, white-knuckling the wheel in horror, but also physically, he couldn’t move the car. The streets weren’t busy, the closest highway was about 45 minutes away, (In hindsight, it was probably the remoteness of the area that kept kaiju from attacking it for so long.) but the streets were backed up, everyone else in a similar panic. 

Finn sat frozen in his car for what felt like 30 minutes, but was probably closer to 30 seconds, before he threw the door open and stumbled out. He wasn’t going to get anywhere on these roads in a car. He needed to find his way home, fast. Outside the cold winter air of the morning was gone, and the fear of 3,000 people and the hunger of one very large sea creature somehow made the air feel hot and heavy and he pushed through panicked pedestrians. There was no way he could outrun the monster, but he didn’t need to, he just needed to act while it was distracted doing- well whatever it was that kaiju did. Eating concrete or fear, whatever. The only thing on his mind was his parents as he ran breakneck through the chaos. His house was close to the edge of town, it was likely the kaiju would just pass it by, or hadn’t gotten to it yet, but there was no use in risking it. 

He had just rounded a corner of another street and clambered over a car when he heard something through the dull roar of the attack. Crying. 

Finn stopped in his tracks and looked around. This area of town was still untouched, and it looked like he was the only person here, but he could hear it clearly now. The sound of a child crying.  He glanced once in the direction he was supposed to be heading, and then behind him where smoke was starting to rise from the center of town, and he made his choice.

Finn followed the sound of the crying to a deserted parking lot outside a grocery store, but he still couldn’t find the kid. 

The sounds of destruction were getting louder now, and he was growing more and more anxious by the second. Finn really didn’t like getting anxious, but he forced it down, peering under cars and behind shopping carts.

“Hey, kid!” He called out, trying to keep the nerves out of his own voice. “Anyone back here?”

No verbal response, but the crying started up again, and Finn chased it down to the other side of the lot, underneath a car. He crouched down and reached a hand out, sure enough, a kid - toddler really, she couldn’t have been more than 6 - was curled into a ball on the pavement, hands over her ears.

“Hey,” Finn said softly, trying to keep his own nerves out of his voice. “Hey kid, where’s your mom?”

This was not the right thing to say, because she just started bawling louder.

“Shit, okay.” He cursed, but tried again. “How about this, I’m here to help. My name’s Finn, and I’m here to rescue you.”

This seemed to work a little better, the kid drew her hands away from her face and looked up at Finn, finally quieting down.

“Finn?” She repeated.

“Yeah, yeah that’s right. I’m Finn.” He did his best to smile and gestured again with his open hand. “Do you want to come with me? We can go find your mom together?”

The little girl hesitated, but gingerly placed her tiny hand in Finn’s, and just as he was about to pull her from underneath the car, the world exploded.

Finn was instantly thrown to the ground by the violent shaking, and the little girl had started wailing again, but this time, Finn really didn’t blame her. In fact, he was pretty damn tempted to crawl right under that car and cry with her, because standing not 50 yards from them was the kaiju. 

_ Now _ Finn thought “wow, it’s a lot bigger than I thought it would be”.

The kaiju reared back it’s head and roared, a terrible, shrill, wet sound, and Finn dropped back down to the ground. Every single instinct he had was screaming at him to not turn his back to the kaiju, but he had to get that little girl out from under the car. He kept his eyes over his shoulder for as long as he could while reaching for the child, but the girl wasn’t budging. 

“Come on, kid.” He tried to say over the noise, finally turning to look at the girl. “We have to get out of here, it’s not safe-”

Finn really thought that the world couldn’t even get any louder, but in that moment, it did. Something had crashed with a huge sound, and the kaiju screamed, he didn’t dare look until he’d managed to reach far enough in to scoop the toddler up in his arms and start running to the other side of the lot. 

But when he turned around, he stopped.

The kaiju was no longer looking at them, it was now far more interested in the huge gleaming robot that stood in front of Finn and the girl. It’s fist was outstretched, and the kaiju was knocked far back, lying in the wreckage of collapsed buildings.

The jaeger was one that Finn had never seen before, matte black and orange, a sigil painted across it’s back like two sets of wings, mirrored in an  _ X _ shape. 

Finn held the girl to his chest, she’d stopped crying now, and was staring at the fight with saucer wide eyes. Finn felt about the same. They were closed into this lot, the only shelter was in the grocery store, but if the kaiju got past this jaeger, they were toast. But Finn couldn’t tear himself away from watching this fight.

This kaiju had recovered from the punch now and was stalking towards the jaeger on all fours, winding like a snake. The jaeger lifted it’s arm, the plasma cannon on the end starting to whir and fire up, but before it was fully charged the kaiju launched itself at it. The black jaeger stumbled a step back, and Finn echoed it’s footsteps instinctively. The kaiju was clinging to its front, clawing at the head of the jaeger, but it was so distracted in it’s task that it failed to notice the chest cannon powering up until it was too late.

The kaiju was obliterated in a blast of white light. There wasn’t even enough left of it for its body to crush anything under it, the beam shot right through the creature’s core, and the kaiju splattered away from all sides. 

It was, kind of awesome.

The jaeger stepped back to survey the carnage. Then, to Finn’s surprise, turned around to face them. He knew, obviously, the jaegers were the good guys and they were on their side, but when you were faced  _ so close _ with this huge, powerful marriage of man and machine, you couldn’t help that shiver. Especially if you just saw it blast a kaiju to nothingness. The jaeger awkwardly knelt down, leaning ever so slightly towards them. Finn was very confused as to why until movement on top of the jaeger’s head caught his eye. 

Standing on top of the jaeger was the pilot. He was young - older than Finn by a few years - and very, Finn could even tell from a distance, very good looking. 

“Hey!” The pilot shouted and waved down at them. He had his helmet held under his arm and his dark curls caught the sunlight. The whole effect was blinding. “Can you hear me down there?”

“Yeah,” Finn tried, but his voice came out hoarse. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Yeah, yeah we can hear you. Thank you for, you know. Killing that kaiju.”

The pilot grinned again. Finn squinted against the light. It was probably just the sun.

“It’s our job. Plus this is also, well, this is kind of the first time we’ve been sent out.” The pilot rubbed the back of his neck, sheepishly. “So me and Jess just wanted to see if you were okay. And the kid.”

“We’re good.” Finn said, and looked over at the little girl, who was staring at the pilot with huge eyes. “Right kid? We’re great.”

Good but shaken, certainly. Finn felt like he was just hit by an emotional train, and he could only imagine how a 5 year old child all alone would feel after having come that close to certain death. The pilot seemed to sense that too, because he vanished into the cockpit again for a minute, and when he emerged again he was holding a jacket, which he threw down at Finn.

“Shock blanket. Kind of.” The pilot shrugged. “We aren’t supposed to bring our jackets into the cockpit with us but I’ve never been great at  _ supposed to _ .”

“Oh, man you don’t have to-” Finn started.

“Keep it, one of you will use it more than I will. It’s pretty cold out here.” The pilot said. “I’m Poe, by the way. Poe Dameron.”

“Finn.”

“Well, Finn.” Poe Dameron smiled, and Finn was pretty sure that his dizziness was still because of the brush was death and  _ nothing _ to do with the handsome jaeger pilot. “I hope we meet again.”

“Well, hopefully not like this.” Finn snorted, and Poe fixed him with a strange look.  
"I think next time you'll be saving me." Poe said and Finn laughed again.  
"That's not really my style. The glamour, the heroism."  
"It's not about the glamour. And as for heroism," Poe gestured to the little girl who was still clinging to Finn. "I wouldn't sell myself short, if I were you. You're a hero, Finn. Maybe I'll see you in a jaeger someday." He saluted one last time at Finn, who waved back with his hand not holding the kid as the pilot disappeared back into the jaeger. 


	2. as young as the minute is

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Rey had been here for almost 6 months and she was still no closer to finding a partner as when she started. She was perfectly capable in hand to hand training, and her drop/kill ratio in the simulator was one of the highest of all the trainees (if not the highest, none of the officials would tell her the official scoreboard), but every time she got in a jaeger simulator with somebody, the neural bridge wasn’t there._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I KNOW I PROMISED TWO WEEKS BETWEEN UPDATES BUT I WAS SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS FIC AND I HAD TIME ON MY HANDS AND JUST WANTED TO INTRODUCE REY AND HAVE HER AND FINN MEET SO HAVE THIS LITTLE CHAPTER OKAY OKAY NOW WE'LL GO BACK TO BIWEEKLY UPDATES.

_ one year later _

Rey swung again, feeling the  _ whoosh _ of air from her staff in front of her face. Time always seemed to slow down for Rey in hand-to-hand combat as she focused on her opponents moves and matched them perfectly with her own. The girl she was partnered with that day was significantly larger than her, pushing Rey back with force rather than letting their blows meet in a dialogue. There were plenty of trainees like that in the jaeger program. The ones that came for the fortune and fame of being a pilot, who thought that making it through training and piloting a jaeger was all about  _ winning _ , but Rey was never one of those recruits.

Her partner - a tough girl who just went by her last name, Phasma - had backed her almost to the edge of the mat now, and Rey could feel the eyes of the other trainees watching her like she was about to made a meal. The most important part of training was the drop simulator, everyone knew it, but Rey loved the martial arts training. She would hear other trainees complain about it before going in or in the mess hall, how it was “essentially useless” and “how will this even help us out there in the real world”, but it was her favorite part. When she was able to break down what was happening in front of her and feel the energy coming off of her partner. 

She took a deep breath, trying again to feel for a connection or  _ something _ with Phasma that just wasn’t there, pulling back mentally with a twinge of disappointment and ducking Phasma’s next swing. She sidestepped as the blonde toppled forward with the surprise of Rey’s move. Without losing a step, Rey spun out from Phasma’s reach, using her momentum and the weight of the staff to carry her around until she stopped it, millimeters from the back of Phasma’s neck.

“3-1.” The instructor said. Phasma pushed her cropped blonde hair back and was on her way to resume the starting positions, but the instructor just said, “That will be enough. Phasma, Rey. Thank you.”

“Is he serious?” Phasma grumbled as the two of them returned to the benches on the edge of the room. “We were doing fine. I mean, I was still winning but not by  _ that _ much.”

The truth was, she knew that they were done. It wasn’t a matter of who won or how close the matches were - they didn’t match. They weren’t drift compatible. Phasma landed every blow with blunt force, while Rey fought lighter on her feet. If they couldn’t work together in the training room, they couldn’t work together in a jaeger.

Rey shrugged and grabbed her water bottle from the bench, pressing the cool metal to her sweaty forehead in an attempt to clear her thoughts, which were once again starting to turn to frustration. The instructor was already calling for the next pair, usually Rey stayed to watch, but today she just grabbed her jacket, lay down her staff, and left the  _ thwack _ ing sounds of combat behind her.

She could hear her footsteps echo down through the cold metal corridors of the base that had become her home the past couple of months. A few strangers in jumpsuits paid her no mind as she mindlessly made her way back to her quarters. And why would they? She was Rey from nowhere. No background, no references, no family, no friends on base to eat her meals with, and next to no potential. 

Rey had been here for almost 6 months and she was still no closer to finding a partner as when she started. She was perfectly capable in hand to hand training, and her drop/kill ratio in the simulator was one of the highest of all the trainees (if not the highest, none of the officials would tell her the official scoreboard), but every time she got in a jaeger simulator with somebody, the neural bridge wasn’t there. They’d let her continue running simulations as part of her training, even without the drift connection. “Just until you find a partner.” They’d been telling her. But after her sparring session with Phasma, she crossed another name off her mental list, which was growing smaller by the day.

Rey suddenly felt very claustrophobic in the metal hallway. Her room was just off this hallway, but the idea of lying in her cramped bunk, staring at the ceiling and the angry fluorescent light bulb filled her with dread. So she kept walking. She turned a corner, and the emotionless steel walls began to gather pipes and wires, gathering like mechanical veins, with dials and valves like organs as she ventured farther from the beaten path of everyday use down maintenance tunnels until she found what she was looking for.

At the end of the hallway, a yellow ladder dangled tantalizingly, leading to an escape hatch. The hatch probably hadn’t been in  _ real _ use since the base was built, maybe even back when this part of the base, the training area and the barracks, were part of a regular military base, before the need for jaegers even arose. But Rey kept the old egress from falling into complete obscurity. A few weeks into training, she’d set off wandering the base on one particular night of insomnia, where the faded red handle and peeling warning signs had caught her eye. Since then, it had become her refuge, a place where she could escape into the open air for hours, just her, the roof, and the waves.

It wasn’t like they kept trainees  _ trapped _ inside the base, they got days off and shore leave, but they were down there for so long that the winding passages of the base felt like all there was. Sometimes Rey wondered if they were supposed to be training to save the world, why were they being kept as far from it as possible.

She turned the handle, feeling it give way a little easier than usual (maybe she was just getting stronger, or maybe the door was getting looser with use) and pushing the hatch open. It must’ve been evening, because pinkish golden light spilled down onto her face as she climbed the last few rungs of the ladder and pulled herself up onto the roof. She kept her eyes shut for a moment, relishing the feeling of cool breeze on her skin and taking in the sounds of the outside world, waves crashing against the side of the base, seagulls calling, and a distant whisper of cars. But when she opened her eyes, ready to make her way to her usual place, sitting on the edge of the wall and letting her feet dangle off the side of the building, she noticed something was wrong.

Well,  _ wrong _ was a strong word. Unusual. Different. Unexpected. Out of place, maybe.

Because there was someone else up here with her.

The stranger stood at the corner of the roof with his back to her with his hands shoved in the pockets of his jacket. The jacket was the first thing that Rey noticed, and how could she not? It wasn’t one of the generic cargo jackets that all the trainees had, this one was worn leather, and she could glimpse the patches on the shoulder that identified it. This was a pilot’s jacket. Not a trainee, this was a legitimate jaeger pilot.

She meant to turn around and leave as quietly as possible, but when she went to turn the handle, the door opened with an ear splitting creak.

“I’m so sorry,” She started when the pilot turned around. “Really I didn’t mean to disturb you, I- hold on. You aren’t a jaeger pilot.”

She could see the newcomer more clearly now. Rey had seen him before in passing, another trainee, but they had never crossed paths. He had dark skin and hair close cropped to his head. This man may have been a trainee, but the jacket definitely belonged to a pilot. And not just any pilot, now that he was facing her, she got a clear view of the patch on the jacket’s front, the four crossed wings were unmistakable. Not only did the whole base know that insignia, Rey was certain that the whole  _ world _ had to, at this point.

“No, I’m not a pilot.” The stranger apologized. Rey didn’t know why she’d been so spooked a moment ago, this guy was more nervous than she ever was, even the pilot’s jacket and his strong shouldered frame couldn’t hide it. “I’m sorry, I know we aren’t allowed to be up here, well. Hang on, are you allowed to be up here? You’re just a trainee.”

“I am.” Rey said, taking a step forward. “And so are you. Who are you, how did you find my spot, and why are you wearing a Rebel Alpha jacket?”

“Uhh,” He winced. “Would you believe it if I just told you I was a fan?”

Rey fixed him with a look.  The man sighed.

“I’m Finn.” He said and held his hand out. “I’m a jaeger pilot trainee. Well, I was but I’m pretty sure I’m getting kicked out after how today went. As for the jacket...that’s a long story.”

“Rey.” She looked closer at the stranger. Finn. Rey didn’t think much of men, but objectively she could say that Finn was handsome. Big brown eyes, sharp cheekbones, and an honest smile. He looked about her age, maybe a few years older. She reached out and took his outstretched hand. It was warm. 

“Rey.” Finn repeated, breaking into a smile. “So this is your spot, huh, Rey?”

Rey rolled her eyes. 

“No one else ever comes up here. I thought for certain I was the only one who knew it was even here.” She said and looked out over the waves. “It’s just, well, a good place to get away from all the-”

She trailed off, but Finn nodded.

“I get it. Well, I’m sorry I took over your secret spot. I just found it today when I was looking for a place to. You know, get away.” Finn said. “I’ll leave you to it, then. Nice meeting you, Rey.”

He turned to leave, and Rey could see him going to pull the hatch open. Ordinarily, she would let him go, she’d be content to sit on the roof alone with her thoughts. After all, wasn’t that what she came up here for? But something inside of her stopped her. Call it what you will, curiosity, loneliness, or a nagging little voice in the back of her head that kept saying  _ destiny _ , she called out to him.

“What happened today?” She asked, and Finn turned back to look at her, confused. “You said you think you’re getting kicked out of the program. What happened?”

Finn looked a bit surprised, but made his way to the edge of the roof where Rey had taken her usual seat. He hesitated for a minute before taking a seat next to her, but looked a bit queasy when he peered over the edge of the roof down to the waves crashing below.

“I was in the drift simulator. Chased the rabbit and ended up freaking out the person I was paired with, which made  _ me _ freak out and I ended up throwing us totally out of the drift and almost firing up the plasma cannon in the base.”

“Yikes.”

“Yeah. Yikes is right.” Finn snorted. He rummaged around in the pocket of his jacket until he produced a protein bar, which he opened noisily. ”What about you, Rey? What brings you to the Rooftop of Shame today?”

She sighed. Finn pulled the bar out of the wrapper, and, to Rey’s surprise, split it in half, offering one piece to her, which she took gratefully.

“I can’t find a drift partner.” She admitted. “I keep failing compatibility tests. I’m going to fail out of the jaeger program for the most  _ basic _ thing that  _ everyone else _ can do easily.”

“Hey, Rey.” Finn said, gently. He rested a tentative hand on her shoulder, and to Rey’s surprise, she welcomed the touch. “Listen. I know I’ve known you for all of 5 minutes. But I’m positive that if there are people out there who can’t drift with you, that’s their damn fault.”

“It doesn’t work like that.” Rey laughed. “Come on.”

“Well, it’s still their fault though. Somehow.” Finn waved it off. “But I mean it, Rey. You’re going to find your copilot and then once you do they’re going to kick the rest of us out of the goddamn program.”

“Thanks Finn.” Rey smiled, softly. “Really.”

“Now’s the part where you tell me that it was totally not my fault that I almost destroyed the simulator.”

“Well...” 

“Oh come on, it could happen to  _ anyone _ .” Finn groaned dramatically and Rey laughed.

“ _ I  _ haven’t blown up the simulator.”

“Yet.” He corrected her. “Just wait until you actually drift with someone. Then you’ll be blowing up simulators left and right.”

“Well you’ll just have to avoid being kicked long enough to find out.” Rey shot back. The sun was sinking lower and lower over the horizon. She found that she didn’t even need to listen for the gulls and the waves when she had someone to talk to. Someone who was  _ easy  _ to talk to.

Finn was smiling now, just as big as Rey but looking out across the water. The orange light lit up his face and he squinted into the sun.

“We can see about that, Rey.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ALRIGHT NOW this babey will be updated every two weeks-ish. If it's longer than that please don't yell at me i'm a college student. college is hard. THAT BEING SAID please yell at me for everything else!! comment what you like! what you hate! what you want to see included in the future!! what you ate for breakfast this morning!! i hope you guys are enjoying this fic so far, I know it's mostly exposition so far BUT fear not the plot is kicking into high gear next update with drift compatibility, Marshal Leia Organa, and a corgi belonging to a certain jaeger pilot.  
> xoxo gossip girl

**Author's Note:**

> ughhh okay i wasn't crazy about this prologue but i'm very excited to start writing the actual fic. yell at me to write on tumblr at [canonpoc](http://canonpoc.tumblr.com/) or twitter [@EPlSODEVl](https://twitter.com/EPlSODEVl). i'm super excited about this guys i've been dying to write this fic for a long time, it's going to be a bit of a behemoth because I have a lot to add and it's going to be a lot more than just rey+finnpoe centric because i've planned a LOT for almost every character in this. i LOVE pacific rim aus. this should update every two weeks but if it doesn't bear with me because i'm a college student and shit happens!!


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